Corporate sponsors and Fifa gone mad

[malaise]

http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1800885,00.html
<snip>
Critics say the decision to make more than 1,000 Dutch fans strip off last Friday is evidence of the extraordinary lengths to which Fifa has gone to protect the interests of World Cup sponsors - at the expense of ordinary fans. Fifa, however, says it has done nothing wrong and is entitled to defend itself against what it calls "ambush marketing".

Either way, there is little doubt of the seemingly unlimited power that sponsors now wield over global sporting events - with British politicians controversially voting to give sponsors a major role in the 2012 London Olympics.

[Kellanved]

1. Well, it has been discussed in depth

The general problem seems to be that the sponsors get more tickets than the national soccer associations while paying a lot less money.

[Divernan]

2. Heads up! This could happen at US football/baseball games too.

Speaking as a lawyer, unless there's something printed on the tickets, or in written notice to anyone purchasing a ticket, that such clothing cannot be worn to the event, it's blatantly illegal to make such a demand of fans. The problem of course is that one doesn't have time for a legal battle when the game is about to start.
What I also find ridiculous it that when I've watched TV coverage, there are never any shots of the fans up close enough to read any logos on their clothing. My 2 kids, through total blind luck, had front row seats right behind one of the goals for the US-Czeck game, so we taped the game so we could freeze frame shots to look for them - even with the freeze frame, the shots were too distant to spot their faces, let alone see anything printed on their clothes. And in the case of the Dutch fans, the logos were on their pants! - not visible in the stands anyway!

As the rest of the article discusses in the excerpt below , it's not just World Cup, but a lot of other corporate sponsored athletic activities - even to the extent of searching people's coolers so they don't try to bring a coke into a pepsi-sponsored event!

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Sponsors play hardball with the corporately incorrect

· The softdrink police were on patrol during the cricket world cup in South Africa in 2003. Pepsi was one of the event's four commercial partners and stewards searched fans' coolboxes for its rival's fizzy drinks. A Johannesburg businessman was evicted from one game for drinking a can of Coca-Cola. "I was told it was against the law," he said. "It is unacceptable that law-abiding citizens be browbeaten and summarily ejected for quietly drinking a beverage that is not approved of by the official sponsors."

· Pepsi also ruled at the 2004 Champions Trophy cricket tournament trophy, where matches were played throughout England. Fans were issued with a list of drinks and snacks they could take into grounds. Pepsi and its family of drinks, such as Tango, 7 Up and Abbey Well mineral water, were acceptable, but no other brands were permitted. There were also restrictions on fruit juices, iced teas and energy drinks. Only Walkers crisps were permitted. Walkers is owned by PepsiCo.

· In March 1998 Greenbriar high school in Evans, Georgia, US, sponsored a Coke In Education Day, with the whole curriculum built round Coca-Cola, including an economics lecture by the company's executives and lessons on baking a Coca-Cola cake during the home economics class. The climax of the day was a school photograph in which all students pictured wore red and white Coca-Cola T-shirts spelling out the word Coke. At the last moment, however, one student, Mike Cameron, spoilt the fun by pulling off his shirt to reveal a Pepsi-plugging shirt beneath. He was suspended from the school as punishment.

· The Raja Casablanca football team was fined $15,000 in 2002 when its team members wore Coca-Cola logos on their shirts in the Caf (Conféderation Africain de Football) competition in Morocco. PepsiCo was one of the competition's main sponsors.
David Ward

[malaise]

3. It's going to be the same

with the cricket world cup in the Caribbean next year. The ICC has already started this ridiculous sponsors' war. We've been told what we can and cannot carry to games. Fans are catching on - we put all our drinks in unmarked plastic bottles.

I'm waiting for them to tell fans what shoes we can wear when those clash with their sponsors. This is corporate greed gone mad.

What makes this worse is that there is no way cameras can pick up men's pants. It is truly disgusting.
Edit -Gr.

[LizW]

4. The guys should start going to the games with no underwear.

:evilgrin:

[malaise]

5. LOL

Great idea :D

[MikeNearMcChord]

6. Heres a story from Safeco Field in 2001

When Alex Rodriguez, came back to Seattle, with the team he was playing at the time, the Texas Rangers, the local sports radio station made up signs, that said "K-ROD!" But because a rival station had "broadcasting rights' inside the stadium, the posters were confiscated, of course the Safeco Field guys said the reason was safety related, but they didn't want to disclose the corporate reason. I think this stuff is so moronic, makes you want to embrace Karl Marx sometimes.